A woman who was mauled by a tiger was in a staff area of the enclosure that animals should not have had access, it has emerged.

Sarah McClay, 24, died when she was mauled by a Sumatran tiger at South Lakes Wild Animal Park, in Dalton-in-Furness, Cumbria, on Friday afternoon.

Detective Chief Inspector Bob Qazi, of Cumbria Police, said: 'It is vitally important that we discover what exactly happened in the big cat enclosure building that led to Sarah coming into contact with the tiger.

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Police have now ruled out possibility zookeeper Sarah McClay, pictured on a night out, committed suicide

This picture from Disney's Beauty And The Beast was posted on her Facebook days before she died

'I want to emphasise there is no
suggestion of any foul play or any issue of suicide or self-harm from
the enquiries we have made and evidence we have.

'What has become apparent from our
enquiries is that Sarah was going about her routine duties and was in
the staff section of the enclosure building, which animals are not
allowed access to, when a tiger has entered it from an adjacent pen and
confronted her.

'The tiger has then attacked Sarah,
taking her from the building into the open-air external enclosure area
where Sarah was left and later attended by staff and paramedics.

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'We are still trying to establish
exactly how and why the tiger has been able to get from the pen into the
staff area and at the moment believe this to be because of a human or
system error, or mechanical failing, or combination of both.'

A spokeswoman from the park confirmed that Sarah was in the staff area of the tiger enclosure.

She said: 'We concur with the
recently released Police statement who are acting for the Coroner in
compiling the evidence in accepting that Sarah was in the keeper work area at the time of the incident.

'The door of the tiger den was wide
open and the slides to the outdoor area left open. This allowed the
tiger to enter the housing and sadly attack Sarah as she was right by
the den door.

'It is now clear that Sarah did enter
the tiger den at some point to clean the den by opening the door but
the exact circumstances of how the slides to the outside enclosure were left open is unclear.'

Miss McClay was described as a happy, bubbly woman who loved her job at the animal park

Zookeeper Sarah McClay pictured (far right) with her boyfriend David Shaw (far left) at the wedding of her brother Stephen McClay (third left) to Tessa McClay

Zoo owner David Gill said neither the park or the tiger was to blame for the death of keeper Sarah McClay

Miss McClay died after being attacked by a tiger at South Lakes Wild Animal Park. One of the park's tigers is pictured

Sarah was located in the inner corridor of the enclosure, an area that tigers should not have access to as the sliding doors to the inner tiger pens should have been bolted shut.

Instead, a tiger was able to drag her from the corridor, through the left pen and out to the outside area were she was killed.

She added that the usual procedure
was not followed on the day.

She said: 'It is protocol not to open any door of a
den until all slides are confirmed closed and padlocked and all animals
confirmed not in the dens and secured in the outer area.

'For some reason this did not happen resulting in this tragedy.

'At the time of the incident it was
not thought there was any reason that day to enter the tiger facility
hence previous versions of events.

'We are convinced that this was not anything but an accident caused by human error.

The park has insisted that the equipment was in full working order at the
time of the incident, but said that Sarah was one of the 'family'.

She said: 'The public were never in
danger and the park was given the all clear to re open within hours of
the incident once mechanical and procedural issues were checked for
failure by the local authority and the police investigations team.

'We wish to conclude by stating that
Sarah was one of our family here, she was talented and special. Our
sincere and heartfelt condolences go to her family.'

Her brother Stephen, 27, has reacted to the statement, saying that the park director David Gill is blaming Sarah for the incident:

Sarah McClay, 24, was in the staff area of the enclosure when the tiger got in to attack her

He said: 'He's laying the blame squarely at her door before the official police inquiries have begun. It has caused hurt to our family.'

Yesterday Stephen said there
was 'no way' his sister would have wanted the animal to be destroyed as
she loved big cats. It comes as police say they do not suspect suicide
or foul play.He

said the family had also been hurt
by suggestions by the park's owner, David Gill, that she had died
because of 'keeper error' and a 'sad error of judgment', the Sun said.

'These are unsubstantiated claims by a man with an obvious axe to grind,' he said.

'My family and I feel his comments are ill-advised, premature and disrespectful.

'He's laying the blame squarely at her door before the official police inquiries have begun. It has caused hurt to our family.'

He also told the Daily Record: 'It is not the tiger’s fault. It is just an animal that didn’t know what it was doing.

In a statement yesterday Ms McClay's
family thanked the efforts of the emergency services and said asked
people to donate to a fund for the conservation of red squirrels in her
memory.

Cumbria Police believe an elaborate
enclosure of gates means the animals and its keepers should remain apart
at all times - but this system failed with fatal consequences.

The Zoo was closed after Miss McClay was mauled in the enclosure, during one of the tiger's 'starvation' days

Detectives do not suspect foul play
or suicide but say Ms McClay was doing her routine duties in an
enclosure to which animals are not allowed access - when she was then
confronted by the animal which somehow managed to gain access to the
pen.

Officers are now trying to establish
whether this was due to a technical fault or human error and have said
there is no suggestion of foul play or issue of suicide or self-harm.

Writing on the park's Facebook page,
Mr Gill said: 'We have made a statement that from the investigations
that have taken place it is clear that this tragedy was caused by a sad
error of judgment and breach of protocols, in essence, keeper error.

'This is not blame, it is not anything but defining the facts as they appear.

'This does not mean Sarah killed herself on purpose it means simply she died from her own tragic mistake.'

Miss McClay suffered ‘very traumatic’
head and neck injuries in the attack and went into cardiac arrest.
Although resuscitated by paramedics, she died in hospital.

Keepers are required to enter the
enclosures in the course of their duties. But each one contains a number
of compartments and an elaborate system of gates which should mean the
animals and their keepers remain apart at all times.

Park owner David Gill said Miss McClay was a happy, bubbly girl who was good at her job

Police outside the South Lakes Animal Park in Dalton, Cumbria

South Lakes Wild Animal Park in Dalton-in-Furness was closed early after the attack

One of the tigers at the South Lakes Wild Animal Park, which was not involved in the attack

Days before her death, Miss McClay
changed her Facebook picture to a still from the 1991 Disney animation
Beauty and the Beast, which shows a portrait in ribbons after being
slashed by claws.

After Miss McClay entered the
enclosure on Friday, staff heard a scream over the radio and ran to the
scene, where they found the two tigers on top of her.

Park owner David Gill, 42, said
Padang, the male Sumatran, had instigated the attack.

He added that at
the time Padang and Alisha were on what is known as a ‘starve day’, when
they are not fed – to mimic conditions in the wild where tigers may go
for some time without catching any prey.

‘The males are twice the size of the females and Padang had taken control,’ Mr Gill said.

He fired two shots with a rifle to
scare away the animals, but Miss McClay, who lived with her boyfriend in
Barrow-in-Furness, had already suffered serious injuries.

Detective Chief Inspector Bob Qazi
said: ‘There is no suggestion of any foul play or any issue of suicide
or self-harm from the enquiries we have made and evidence we have.

‘What has become apparent from our
inquiries with witnesses is that Sarah was going about her routine
duties and was in the staff section of the enclosure building, which
animals are not allowed access to, when a tiger has entered it from an
adjacent pen and confronted her.

Miss McClay’s family yesterday praised
paramedics and hospital staff for ‘valiant efforts’ to save her life,
adding: ‘We are still coming to terms with what has happened.’